


I <3 Podracing

by areallynicedream



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Force Bond (Star Wars), Jedi Training, Romantic Fluff, The Force Ships It, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2018-12-02
Packaged: 2019-09-05 16:52:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16814659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/areallynicedream/pseuds/areallynicedream
Summary: ONESHOT // Rey finishes her training for the day, but has her rest disrupted by a busy Kylo Ren who connects with her over their force bond. Kylo Ren seems to be less scary, and much more of a nerd, than Rey thought...Contains: angst & fluff





	I <3 Podracing

The muscles in Rey’s arms, legs and core burn as she twists and turns, her training staff in her hands and her eyes closed. The Force flows around and through her as she practices her forms. Air whips around and cools her sweat-covered temples, where stray hairs stick. The training positions have become so familiar to her, she feels as though she is meditating.

“Rey?” Master Skywalker’s voice from behind her pulls her out of her trance. She finishes her movement and turns to face him. Luke seems to notice Rey’s tired appearance and her determined stance as she pants, looking up at him patiently. A smile forms on his face, and his tired eyes glisten.

“Your commitment to your training is exceptional.” he says simply. A small blossom of pride opens up in Rey’s chest. She knows her training during the past couple of days on the island have been good, her hardest work yet. She can feel it, physically and mentally, how she has improved. “However,” her mentor continued, “I would advise you to wrap up for today. The sun has set, and you’ve been at this for hours.” He nods at Rey with a kind smile. “Tomorrow, we will continue with meditation techniques.”, he adds.

“Yes, Master.” Rey acquiesces, somewhat relieved, “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Goodnight, Rey.” He turns to leave, his cloak swaying gently behind him in the ocean breeze.

Rey can feel the fatigue creeping into her body now that she is standing still, muscle by muscle relaxing after hours of movement. She’s been here longer than she thought, she realises. She walks closer to the edge of a rock edge overlooking the ocean and sits down, watching the water crash against the shore. The moon, bright and on the rise, lights up the tips of the waves before they fall. The rhythmic sound calms her as she begins her post-training stretching, retreating into calm meditation. Once she has bathed and changed out of her training clothes, she sits in her bed, her room dimly illuminated by the central fire. Rubbing her stiff neck muscles, the familiar and comfortable weight of fatigue settles over her. She positions herself in her covers, letting the feeling of drowsiness surround her, happy with her day’s work.

After some time, she cannot tell how long, an unfamiliar sensation brings Rey’s awareness back into her room. Something is softly tugging at her thoughts, although she can’t quite put her finger on what it is. She tries searching her mind to match the sensation with the thought, but to no avail. Whatever it is, it’s not letting her go to sleep. Is this the exhaustion playing with her? She rolls over onto her back, rubbing her eyes with her palms. With her hands over her face, all is dark. Well, it should be. If she focuses her attention, she can see the faint colours of black, white and grey start to form behind her eyelids; the colours of the First Order. A reminder of Rey and Kylo Ren’s force bond sends a mixture of anxiety, fear and anger shooting up her spine. She sits up straight on her bed, fully awake now. Confusing thoughts run rapidly through her mind. What just happened? Why did he choose _now_ to reach out to her? Did he choose to reach out? Or, rather, did the connection happen organically without either of them trying? She can feel Kylo Ren’s energy become more present within and around her, and she doesn’t like it one bit. She wants that malignant, awful creature as many light years away from her as is physically possible. She would never admit it out aloud, but she’s terrified of him. Besides the sphere of influence he holds over the galaxy or his mastery of The Force, the thing she is most fearful of is the way he is able to extract feelings out of her she never knew she could have to such an extreme; rage, despair, even lust. _Now is not the time, Rey_ , she mentally scolds herself.

Despite her brain chatter, there seems to be no indication that Kylo has registered the connection between them. She has felt nothing but a steady thrum of vibrations and the unsettling feeling of his presence surrounding her. _Odd. Maybe he is focusing on something else,_ she thinks. She closes her eyes, trying to find a vision, a thought, a sound, anything which is not her own. She hates that she wants to pry, but she can’t help being curious; it’s going to be her downfall. Kylo Ren, the enigma himself, doesn’t often have his thoughts invaded, Rey is sure. This thought makes her grin. This could be a chance for her to gain an upper hand in their strange relationship. An image is starting to form behind Rey’s eyelids. The colours which she vaguely saw before are becoming more prominent and focused. She feels Kylo’s strange, enigmatic presence surrounding her and can catch a glimpse of his thoughts, vague flashes of colours or images. They duck and weave in unpredictable ways, making it difficult for Rey to follow.

The image behind her eyelids starts to become clearer, although the edges of the vision are blurry and unfocused. She notices some new things about the scene in front of Kylo’s vision. Firstly, he is holding something; a fountain pen, it looks like. It is a dark jade colour, with streaks of light and dark green twisting around and forming whirls. Rey is in awe of the beautiful implement. The last time she saw one was back in Jakku, in a dusty second-hand store, where she had tried to steal it, but was caught by the shop-owner and kicked out onto the hot, dry sand outside. She wasn’t sure what she would have done with the pen, as she had no paper and knew not what to write. But just holding it, having the ability to set ink to paper if she wanted, would be enough to satisfy her. Kylo holds his pen in a different way than she. He is right-handed, and rests the pen on the inside of his thumb. Rey can’t seem to stop her eyes moving along his hand, noticing the pattern of his skin and the thick veins which travel along his wrist and bulge slightly. _Oh stars, here I go again. Shut up brain!,_ she reprimands herself again, resuming her silent observations. There is an open book of clear, white parchment in front of Kylo, and he is writing on it. He makes soft, elegant strokes. Rey didn’t think Kylo Ren had the ability to be elegant, so this comes as a surprise. He must be working on some sort of letter. _Who writes letters?_ Everything, these days, is transferred through radio signal or hologram. It is almost refreshing to see a return to primitive forms of communication. However, Rey notes that there are patches of writing all over the page, written in different fonts, so it can’t be a message. _Could he be…practicing_ calligraphy _?_ A Jedi who has mastered the Dark Side of The Force and holds a position of great power over the galaxy is… writing out words in pretty fonts in his spare time. Rey almost laughs. She must try not to be so harsh, but how can she stop herself? Kylo has always presented himself as cold-natured and seemingly disinterested in most things, except taking absolute control over the galaxy. Rey tries to make out what he is writing. In one corner, he wrote “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” in an extravagant serif font. _Boring_. On another patch of parchment, he wrote “Ewok” in a blocky script. _Getting more interesting_. Across from this, Kylo left a single word, half scratched out but still legible, written in a conservative cursive, “Ben”. Rey is stunned by this. He hates being called his real name, she knows from the times she has called him that herself. So, why would he write it out? Rey’s attention is taken away from this thought and suddenly focused on Kylo’s current movements; he is writing something else in a thin, elegant cursive; “I,” - and then a heart symbol - “podracing”. Rey does a double take. _This cannot be real._ Rey simply can’t stop herself from laughing out loud. Immediately, she knows she has exposed herself, the translucent barrier which hung between her and Kylo suddenly disappears as he becomes acutely aware of her presence, her laugh giving her away. All at once, she is enveloped by his emotions, his senses and his surroundings in detail, as she is sure he is too. He quickly closes the book of parchment and a wave of something washes over both of them; embarrassment.

“How long have you been spying on me for?” He suddenly asks. Rey is taken aback by his rough, low voice and accusing tone, a new sound which cuts through the silence she had become accustomed to.

“I-”, Rey croaks, getting used to using her voice, “I wasn’t spying!”, she retorts, “You were the one that reached out to me. You just didn’t notice I was here.”

“I didn’t. You invaded first.” He quickly responded.

_This is childish,_ Rey thought.

“Heard that.” Kylo snaps back, grinning. 

“Why would my “spying” be such a big deal anyway?” Rey continues, eager to win this argument. “I’m sure you’ve done it before, what with your great _mastery_ of The Force”, she mocks him.

Kylo paused. “I could have, yes.” He mumbles, nonchalantly, “But your life is far too boring to serve my interests.” Rey scoffs in annoyance, anger erupting in her chest. 

“No you’re right.” she starts, “Calligraphy is far more interesting.” She can feel Kylo bristle and is satisfied with her response.

“You weren’t supposed to see that.” He mumbles. It’s Rey’s turn to grin. “Anyway, I don’t just do it for fun. It’s like a type of meditation… Well, sometimes it’s fun-”, he stops rambling, and continues quietly, nervously, “How much did you see?”. The memory of “I <3 podracing” being written flashes in Rey’s mind and she almost laughs again. 

“Enough.” She simply states. She knows Kylo can see the memory too, as she feels him cringe. She continues on her exposure rampage; “This force bond is helpful, you know. We’re really getting to know each other, _Ben_.”

Kylo’s anger and confusion surges up Rey’s spine. He is angry at himself for writing out his name in the first place and confused as to how Rey can remember so much of what he wrote. 

“This… this is not an ideal situation right now.” he concedes. Rey grins, knowing she has won this round. There is a small silence along their connection. Kylo’s energy surges through and around Rey, his focus on her clear. His presence is cold, she realised, and lonely. She almost feels sorry for him. 

“I uh- I like your fountain pen.” Rey suddenly states, impulsively. _Why did I say that?_ She can practically feel Kylo grinning.

“Thanks.” He begins, “I don’t know where it’s from. It was gifted to me by a general some time ago.” Their energies move together in a warm, comfortable way. They are talking almost freely with each other, which, to Rey, is terrifying. But she doesn’t have the energy to be scared of or angry with him right now, and besides, it’s nice to see this softer side of him. For the first time, Rey realises, and she suspects Kylo does too, they are comfortable in each other’s presence. 

“You seem tired.” He says, his tone gentle. 

“I am,” Rey responds, suppressing a yawn as she is reminded of her hard day’s work, “You interrupted my sleep.”

“I still don’t know how I did that without realising.” Kylo remarks, mostly to himself. 

“The Force did it.” Rey jokes. Kylo laughs softly. He then starts to pack up the calligraphy set and folds away various pieces of parchment. 

“What are you doing?” Rey asks. 

“Well, I may as well pack up and go to bed. I didn’t realise how late it was. Besides, I won’t be able to meditate much with you chattering away.”, he explains.

“Hey!” Rey scoffs, “I don’t _chatter_.”

“Oh yes, you do.” Kylo simply states. Rey decides with her better judgement to concede this round, settling into the comfortable connection they have. She watches him pack up the writing set completely and clear his desk. He stands, flicks off the switch to the light over the desk and walks across the space to his sleeping quarters. Quickly, wordlessly, Kylo takes his shirt off and sits on the edge of his bed to take his shoes and socks off too. Rey’s cheeks heat up in response to this, from uneasiness or attraction she’s not sure. 

“No need to feel embarrassed, Rey.” she can feel Kylo smiling as he climbs into the covers of his bed. The sound of her name on his lips is unfamiliar. She kind of likes it. There is a comfortable pause between them.

“Will we share dreams or something?” Kylo suddenly asks. Rey smiles at his curious, child-like nature. She remembers the first time they connected over the Force Bond, he was more interested in the nature of the connection over what Rey had to say to him. 

“Maybe, it would be interesting to find out.” she responds, yawning. 

“It would be.”

“Well… I’m going to sleep.” Rey states, awkwardly. 

“Okay.” He sounds tired.

“Goodnight, Ben.”

Rey can feel him being initially confused by the use of his real name, but this confusion changes to a strange feeling of comfort. He smiles. A wave of drowsiness washes over both of them. Rey can feel herself being pulled further and further down towards sleep, and she knows Ben feels the same.

“Goodnight, Rey.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this little oneshot. I really like this premise, I may use it again in another piece... 
> 
> ~ J


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